Heavyweight boxing & mixed martial arts ratings and commentary

May 2011

May 31, 2011

May was bad month for top ten Heavyweight Boxing, as none were active, but two American hopefuls closed in on regaining their former Top Ten status.

Chris Arreola and Tony Thompson moved up to #13 and #11, respectively, both notching wins this month.

Arreola, in fact, fought and won twice, both times by knockout. First he handled #201 Nagy Aguilera in three rounds, then just 13 days later beat up #266 Kendrick Releford in 7 rounds. Neither fight gained Arreola (32-2) a lot of points but he rose from #15 to #13.

Thompson easily dispatched overmatched #134 Maurice Harris in three rounds, scoring a knockdown in both the 2nd and 3rd round. Interestingly, for Thompson this win avenged his last "defeat," as he lost to Harris in 2002 in the Thunderbox Heavyweight Tournament. Those fights were ruled exhibition fights and thus didn't count toward official records, which is why Thompson (36-2) has just two losses.

For Arreola, more impressive than the two wins was his weight: he came in at an average of 235 pounds for the two fights, his lowest in four years, showing that he is taking his quest for another title shot seriously. He has won four times since losing to #6 Tomasz Adamek; his only other loss is to #2 Vitali Klitchko.

Thompson has won 5 straight since losing to #1 Wladimir Klitschko, and now he's in line for a title eliminator against #8 (and top-rated American) Eddie Chambers.

Both fighters face an uphill battle if they get another shot. While Arreola is in much better shape than before, he's still the same fighter—agressive but lacking defense. Sam Peter tried the same route of losing the fat but keeping the same style; he got his return title shot but lost just as bad as before. Thompson, meanwhile, gave Wladimir his toughest challenge of the last several years, but at age 39 he might be too late. If he can get past Chambers—no guarantee for sure—it's hard to imagine him doing much better the 2nd time around against a Klitschko. Unlike Arreola, Thompson was at his highest weight in many years against Harris.

Regardless, both Americans have shown that they are serious about the sport. Thompson could prove he's the top American fighter with a win over Chambers, and Arreola's new-found conditioning program—if he keeps it up—could put him back in the top ten for a much longer stay this time around.

Mike Perez won the latest Prizefighter heavyweight tournament, beating #182 Kertson Manswell, #128 Gregory Tony, and #138 Tye Fields, and he jumped from #41 to #24. It wasn't nearly as impressive as it would have been if the original field—including Juan Carlos Gomez, Kevin Johnson, and Fres Oquendo—had held, but the three solid wins put his potential on display.

The biggest jump in the top 100 goes to Franklin Lawrence, who leapt from #86 to #44 after beating #62 Jason Gavern. Two newcomers join the Top 100 after getting their initial significant win, #63 Ty Cobb and #72 Hector Avila. Cobb previously lost to #80 Deontay Wilder before either was ranked; as every fighter starts fresh with his first win, Cobb will remain incongruously ahead of Wilder for the time being.

As inactive as this month was, June isn't any better as we wait for July 2nd's huge showdown between #1 Wlad Klitschko and #4 David Haye. Once again no top ten fighters are in the ring, and the biggest fight on the schedule is #57 David Price vs. #96 John McDermott, though that one will certainly be huge in the U.K.

Fields and Sprott had an incredible battle in round one but Fields was much more active in the first two rounds. Sprott came on strong in round three and battered Fields with hard shots but couldn't quite knock him down and lost a split decision.

Round Two

Perez KO 1 Tony

Fields KO 1 Airich

Perez made short work of Tony in Round 2, knocking him down three times in the first round. Tony's arm was hurt after the first knockdown.

Fields hit Airich with a hard uppercut to the ribs that ended things early, setting up and interesting final.

Final

Perez KO 1 Fields

Perez attacked Fields from the start and once he found his target it was over fast, with the referee stopping the fight with Fields against the ropes.

Perez's three wins over rated fighters will move him from #41 into the Top 25 in SportsRatings' Heavyweight rankings.

While the rest of the boxing world is focused on Manny vs. Mosley, fans of the heavyweight division have another Prizefighter heavyweight tournament to look forwards to.

Though it's still the most loaded of the five heavyweight tourneys, it could have been great. The original lineup featured 8 fighters in the SportsRatings Top 250, and 3 in the Top 100. After pullouts by Juan Carlos Gomez, Kevin Johnson, and Fres Oquendo, there are still 6 in the top 250 and one top 100 fighter—the undefeated prospect Mike Perez.

Manswell will face #41 Mike Perez (13-0-0). Though Manswell has just one loss, he doesn't really have more than a couple of notable wins, and has little experience against good fighters. Oquendo would have provided a seasoned test for Perez, who should beat Manswell without much difficulty. Manswell does stand 6' 4", 4 inches taller than Perez, his only advantage in the fight.

Orlov will face #128 Gregory Tony (14-1), whose resumé is similar to Manswell's—a loss against the only really good fighter (Robert Helenius) he faced. But that's better than Orlov's record, which includes many losses against both good and bad opponents. Again, Orlov's advantage is his size; he is 6' 9" and occasionally north of 300 pounds, and could give Tony problems in a 3-round fight.

The only matchup which stayed constant is probably the best of the first round, as #210 Michael Sprott (36-15-0) takes on #138 Tye Fields (45-3-0). Like Orlov, Fields is a giant (6' 8", 275 or so), he's a better fighter than Orlov. Still, his record is enormously padded and only roughly a dozen or so of his 45 wins are over 'name' fighters. He recently lost to Michael Grant, while Sprott has had mixed success lately: he won almost all of his fight against Audley Harrison before succumbing to a 1-punch knockout in the final seconds, but bounced back to win the last heavyweight Prizefighter tourney. In a 3-round fight, Sprott has a clear boxing advantage and just has to avoid Fields' big shots.

Finally, the undefeated Bot faces #245 Konstantine Airich (16-3-2). Airich is only 2-3-2 in rated wins and recently lost to the struggling Gbenga Oloukun, but Bot barely beat Pavel Dolgavs (now 8-14-1) in his last fight a year ago. This is the worst of the first round matches and the winner is very likely to fall in the second round anyway.

The favorite Perez may have to prove he can beat several tall fighters if things shape up a certain way. After beating Manswell, he could face Orlov and then Fields, a true valley of the giants with an average height of 6' 7" among the three. But more likely he will face Tony in round 2, and then Sprott. The aging Sprott won't be able to keep up with Perez, who is very active in the early rounds and is the fighter best suited to a 3-round format. Fields is usually agressive, too, so the format isn't bad for him, either. But he has little or no defense and if he somehow beats Sprott, then reaches the final, Perez will probably overwhelm him the way Monte Barrett did.

It's too bad Oquendo, Gomez, and Johnson pulled out, or we could have seen a number of very high-profile heavyweight fights. Perez would have had to defeat all three most likely to claim the title. He will probably earn the Prizefighter title today, but it will be a lot less impressive than if the original slate had remained, and rather than a likely Perez-Sprott clash we might have seen a Johnson-Gomez final.

The tournament is on Sky Sports 1 in the UK and on the internet at www.liveprizefighter.tv. The fights are scheduled to start at 10:00pm UK time, which is 5:00 Eastern time. Apparently it started at 4:00 eastern, whatever.